


(more than) a single flake of snow

by theriveroflight



Series: Bad Things Happen Card Fills [4]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Blizzards & Snowstorms, Canon Compliant, Gen or Pre-Slash, Implied Relationships, M/M, Trucks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:33:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24899989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theriveroflight/pseuds/theriveroflight
Summary: The trucks are built to deal with snow, but not likethis.
Relationships: Qrow Branwen/Clover Ebi
Series: Bad Things Happen Card Fills [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1543747
Comments: 8
Kudos: 30
Collections: Bad Things Happen Bingo





	(more than) a single flake of snow

**Author's Note:**

> I was hoping to post this before FG made 1000 fics, but I'm a little late to that train now. So now I get to break the Nice Exact Number! Yay!
> 
> Written for my Bad Things Happen bingo. Trope is "Caught in a Storm." This isn't really angsty, which undermines the point of the card, but there is some Yearning and some Introspection, so it isn't complete fluff.
> 
> This is canon-compliant. Kind of a missing scene, shall we say?

Everything lurches forwards from inertia as the truck brakes.

Clover bangs on the divider between them and the driver. “What’s wrong?”

Because the truck doesn’t stop unless there’s something wrong. Grimm, Happy Huntresses…blizzards. The average snowstorm doesn’t stop these trucks, but something heavy enough will make it hard for the driver to see.

“Low visibility. Can’t see,” the driver calls back. “Might be stuck here until it clears up a bit.”

“Great,” Qrow grumbles, but refrains from saying more.

“Just our luck, right?” Clover looks over at him, sitting on top of a crate, and smiles. Qrow rolls his eyes.

“Thought it was supposed to balance out, right?” If Clover’s doing it, Qrow will follow.

“I mean, it could really be either of us. Good luck that it’s the two of us stuck out here together, and that it’s just a snowstorm. Could be worse, right?” Qrow envies Clover’s boundless optimism - the way that he always seems to know how to turn things around. Qrow himself has never been an optimist - hope was for people that weren’t raised in a tribe of thieves and sent to an academy to specifically spy on the Hunters that went there.

“There are other supply trucks out right now. We should warn them.” He takes out his scroll and sends out a quick text to his niece, letting them know that there’s a blizzard further on and they might want to turn back.

**_Yang:_ ** _ and you’re stuck in it? _

_ Yes, I am. If u try & come 4 us you might get stuck _

_ i’ll let the driver know _

“I let Yang know that they should turn back if they don’t want to get caught.”

“Good.” Clover takes out his scroll - probably to shoot a text off to the other Ace-Ops. Nobody else should have to get caught in this storm besides them.

They’ll get out of this. It might take a while. And they’ll have to dig the truck out later, too.

“Not looking forward to digging the truck out,” Qrow says, attempting to start a conversation.

“Me neither. There’s some equipment in these in case of emergencies. We haven’t had to use it often, but being prepared is never a bad thing.” Qrow rolls his eyes. How much more stereotypical could Clover get?

Not that it’s a...bad thing. Clover both manages to fulfill and defy expectations - Atlas military through and through, but he still manages to retain a  _ personality  _ through that (unlike some other Atlas military operatives he knew).

And what a personality it was. Qrow felt spellbound around Clover, almost as though there was something in him that wanted to know more about the man underneath the operative.

He knows how attraction feels. It’s not exactly a new experience to him. There are a few people that he’s been attracted to - not many that liked him back, but those who did he could pass off on and get  _ something  _ out of it. Attachment issues and all.

Not that he was trying to fix them, but at least he was self-aware about them.

The kids are helping a little with that. They don’t care. They  _ want  _ to be around him, not because they want something out of him but because they care about him. They’ve made that  _ very  _ well-known.

And he’s trying not to push people away as much anymore.

That includes Clover, who is…

Calling his name?

“Qrow. Qrow?”

He looks over at Clover. “You seemed pretty zoned out just now. The tundra’s pretty boring, but we both need to stay alert for when the blizzard stops so that we can get going again ASAP.”

“Yes, sir,” Qrow attempts to joke. “Up for some cards?”

“I’m always game for winning.”

“Don’t be so sure about that.” Qrow does his best to repress his smile, though he’s pretty sure he’s failing, so he ducks his head to avoid letting Clover see. “I could pull one over on you one day.”*

“We’ll see about that now, huh?”

* * *

They end up playing cards until the storm stops - about two hours. Qrow doesn’t win a single game.

But he’s willing to lose over and over again, because it happens differently every time. Some games take longer to lose than others. The novelty of it is still astounding. He’s bound to lose, but the way he loses is different every time. Can’t get more pathetic than admiring the different ways Clover can defeat him in a simple card game.

He looks out the window to see that the snow has stopped. He sighs. “Time to get us out.”

The wind did a lot of the work in both burying and undoing the hard work in the first place. Snow had settled around the truck, but only in certain areas. The tundra was silent in the aftermath - the only noise was the sounds of the shovels in snow as they dug the truck out enough to keep going.

The cold is still bitter, though. That hasn’t changed. Not that it does all that often.

How does Clover go sleeveless? Qrow is almost thinking about rolling his sleeves down for once in his life.

Clover being sleeveless certainly gives him more to admire.

As they climb back into the truck and the driver starts the engine, he asks, “How do you go sleeveless in this climate?”

Clover looks down at his arms. “I just got used to it. I grew up here, after all. It’s easy to get desensitized to the climate if you’ve been doing it your entire life.”

“Still gets cold out here, doesn’t it?”

Clover looks over at him. “Like I said, you learn to deal with it.”

What exactly  _ has  _ Clover gone through? It’s back to that desire - he doesn’t think Clover has ever had anyone that could be close to him. The Ace-Ops strike him as too professional for real companionship outside of the battlefield, and he knows that  _ he  _ doesn’t get many opportunities to make friends. They’re professionals.

But...everyone needs someone to turn to.

He wants to be that person for Clover. Someone that Clover can trust. Outside of whatever bond that the other operatives have, outside of the military. They might be both Huntsmen, but they  _ are  _ fundamentally opposites.

He and Clover are more connected than he’s chosen to be in a long time. Qrow...wants to choose that. The connection between them.

And…Qrow  _ can.  _ He’s willing to learn how to make that connection, learn how to trust in someone else. Maybe it’ll help him, too.

They have time to do it.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me online:  
> alto-tenure - main Tumblr  
> the-river-of-light - visual art Tumblr  
> beunforgotten - writing Tumblr  
> riiveroflight - Twitter
> 
> Looking forwards to writing more of these two in the future!


End file.
